He played 72 games in his rookie year with the Pacers, starting 21 of them and finishing with averages of 5.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. On August 12, 1997 he and Duane Ferrell were traded to the Golden State Warriors for Chris Mullin.

He spent the next seven years, primarily as the starting center, for the Warriors, hitting his peak production in 2003–04 with averages of 12.3 points, 12 rebounds and 1.85 blocks per game. However, some critics claimed that he stepped up his production because he was in a contract year, and indeed he was considered a top free-agent commodity in the 2004 off-season.

On November 23, 2010, he signed a contract with the Miami Heat.[5] With Dampier and the Heat losing the 2011 NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, Dampier had the unfortunate distinction of being on the losing end of both the 2006 NBA Finals and the 2011 series, which was a rematch of the former that saw the Heat defeat a Maverick team which featured Dampier.

Dampier signed a ten-day contract with the Atlanta Hawks on February 9, 2012.[6] On February 19, 2012, he signed his second ten-day contract with the Hawks.[7] On March 1, 2012, Dampier signed with the Hawks for the rest of the season.[8]